Pope Pius IX (Latin: Pius PP. IX, Italian: Pio IX; May 13, 1792 – February 7, 1878), born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Feretti, was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 256th Pope, from 1846 until his death.[1]  Only Saint Peter himself led the church longer than the 32-year reign of Pius IX.

In 2000, he was beatified, which is a step in the process of naming a saint of the Catholic Church.[2]

Mastai-Feretti was ordained as a priest in 1819.[3]

Father Mastai-Feretti was named Bishop of Spoletto in 1827.[3]  In 1877, the Golden Jubilee celebrations recalled the 50 years since he was named a bishop.[4]

In 1840, Pope Gregory XVI made Bishop Mastai-Feretti a cardinal.[3]

Cardinal Mastai-Feretti was elected Pope in 1846; and he took the name Pius IX.[3]

In 1846, Piux IX declared an amnesty for political prisoners.[2]

In 1848 he ordered that the gates to the Jewish ghetto in Rome be knocked down.[2]

Pius formally defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.[5]

In 1849, Pius was deposed as the temporal ruler of the Papal States.[3]  As a result of Italian nationalism and the Risorgimento, the Papal States and all of the pope's land outside the Apostolic Palace were seized in 1870 and pope spent his last years a virtual prisoner within the Vatican.[2]

In 1869-1870, Pope Pius brought together the church's bishops and cardinals in a meeting called the Vatican Council.[6]    The council defined the dogma of papal infallibility.[7]

Pius died at age 85.[8]

The process of recognizing Pius IX as a saint began in 1907.[2]

The body of Pope Pius IX was exhumed in 1956.[9]  This was part of a ceremony of "recognition".[5]

Preparations for beatification were almost finished in 1962;[10] and they were completed in 1984.[2]

Media related to Pius IX at Wikimedia Commons

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